Comments on: Legal Malpractice Insurance in Texas? GASP!

By: Texas Follows in California’s Footsteps « Musings of a Dinosaur

Texas Follows in California’s Footsteps « Musings of a Dinosaur — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:27:10 +0000

[...] (h/t Examiner.com, via WhiteCoat) [...]

By: BrokenHandLawyer

BrokenHandLawyer — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:59:46 +0000

Riiiiight. Which is why, when I was referred to a hand surgeon when I broke my hand during a lapse in coverage (no easy feat by itself), and I walked in, the receptionist informed the good doctor that his “no-insurance patient” was here.

The good doctor promptly told me that my hand was fine, despite several GPs previously telling me otherwise.

By: Cary W. White

Cary W. White — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:39:12 +0000

This debate is heating up further, but still only 20 or so states have any legal malpractice insurance disclosure rule.

By: Adan Atriham

Adan Atriham — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:08:36 +0000

I love it… Great post. Let’s share with the lawyers some of our feelings.

Doctors should be doctors and lawyers should be…. uhhhhh…. people.

Cheers

By: Cary W. White

Cary W. White — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:41:35 +0000

This is a very important topic and it is too bad that too many of the previous comments got personal. As insurance brokers specializing in legal malpractice insurance for attorneys we do not have a position one way or another in the debate in Texas, it is important to know that Texas is not alone in considering mandatory disclosure. On August 26, 2009, the Supreme Court of California adopted new Rule of Professional Conduct 3-410, effective January 1, 2010 that requires lawyers without professional liability insurance to provide written disclosure of their lack of coverage to all new clients and returning clients with new engagements at the time of the client’s engagement. It would be interesting to know if there is anything more than anecdotal evidence that such disclosure rules either: (1) cost any attorney’s business, or (2) led to more or larger legal malpractice insurance claims.

As for studies related to legal malpractice insurance claims, I am particularly fond of the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions & Professional Registration 2008 Legal Malpractice Insurance Report. This excellent report provides a quick overview of premium and loss data compiled from ten (10) insurance carriers writing legal malpractice insurance in Missouri over ten (10) years. The report contains excellent, easy to read, charts, graphs and tables highlighting the closed claim information collected. Though not necessarily indicative of the results in the entire United States or for any other state, we believe that the report does provides valuable comparative data for attorneys, insurance carriers and brokers to ponder when considering new and renewal insurance terms. It may even be helpful in this debate as well. The report can be found at (http://insurance.mo.gov/Contribute%20Documents/2008LegalMalpracticeReport.pdf).

Once again, we have no specific opinion in the Texas debate, but encourage all parties to carefully review a wide range of issues as this issue continues to be evaluated.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:04:01 +0000

Here’s a recent gem from their discussion:

“If lawyers are required to disclose whether they have malpractice insurance the same situation will develop as with doctors–to keep down their malpractice rates they won’t take risky cases. But unlike medicine, there is no “Emergency Room” and no EMTALA (the federal law requiring certain types of emergency medical treatment regardless of ability to pay) for law — people with risky cases will have to just hope they can find a lawyer who is so inexperienced that he doesn’t recognize the potential problems. … Just what someone with a major problem needs!”

By: PookieMD

PookieMD — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:31:47 +0000

Good gravy White Coat, you’ve done it again! What a side splitter reading this post! Poor little lawyers!!!

By: brett

brett — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:28:22 +0000

Matt: I read you just fine. I was not refering to your question to Throck but your previous false assertions you have about EMTALA and about ER and other physicians being ‘salaried’. I guess it is too hard for you to understand.

By: Doc99

Doc99 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:17:16 +0000

C’mon, guys … you expect justice. That just isn’t so in the courtroom. Oliver Wendell Holmes said it best: “This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.”

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:13:34 +0000

Yup, brett – you are right. I’ve definitely seen it explained to Matt that all physicians are not, in fact, paid a salary by the hospital.

FYI, Matt, there are any number of fee arrangements. There’s working as an independent contractor, being an employee of a group the is separate from the hospital, or being a hospital employee. If you are an employee of a contracted group you may have an independent contractor arrangement, a salaried arrangement, or other arrangements with which I am not as familiar (fee for service, modified fee for service, RVU based, and salaried base with productivity incentives come to mind).